There's an Exercise App That Can Control Your Heart Rate With Music

Few things are as important as heart rate while exercising. Staying within a target heart rate can help determine how well your body performs. With that in mind, researchers at the University of Virginia have developed an app-based system capable of controlling your heartrate through strategically selected songs.

According to New Scientist, the app is the crux of the system, but it also uses a pair of earbuds with integrated microphones which listen to the body's heartrate:

A team of researchers led by Shahriar Nirjon at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville embedded a microphone into a set of headphones that listens to the throb of arteries in your ear. That data, as well as activity levels gathered using an accelerometer, is sent over the internet to a recommendation engine which chooses the next song based on the user's current and desired heart rate.

What's more, is that the system can take in environmental factors—temperature, weather, etc—to help determine the best song to help direct your heart rate in one direction or another. If it wasn't already, working out has now become prime nerd territory. [New Scientist]